


Building Steam with a Grain of Salt

by azephirin



Series: Ghosts [6]
Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Angst, Anonymous Sex, Birthday, Comfort, Drabble Collection, Established Relationship, Female In Command, Friendship, Grief, Insomnia, Italian, Marriage, Military, Music, Other, Pon Farr, Reading, Threesome, Threesome - F/M/M, Unrequited Love, Weddings, Widowed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-08
Updated: 2010-03-08
Packaged: 2017-10-07 19:27:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azephirin/pseuds/azephirin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>I just knew what to do. I mainly taught myself.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Building Steam with a Grain of Salt

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the same universe as "[Ghosts](http://archiveofourown.org/works/66957)," but I don't think you need to have read that to enjoy this fic. This came from one of those music memes: Put your iTunes on random and use the first ten songs as prompts. I was a little fast and loose with the prompts, though, because I seem to have a lot of angsty music, and I could only take the emo for so long. Title and summary from [the DJ Shadow song](http://new.music.yahoo.com/dj-shadow/tracks/building-steam-with-a-grain-of-salt--1238654).

At her level, it’s not a panel—it’s lunch at the Officers’ Club.

“Where am I going, Jon?” she asks after they order. “I’m on tenterhooks.”

Archer hesitates, so uncharacteristically that Winona starts to worry. “There’s a prime teaching position—”

“Oh hell no. You’re not grounding me with undergraduates. I’ll resign.”

“You really want five more years, Wi?”

“That’s all I want.”

If he starts up with “you’re still running,” she’ll throw her wine in his face, insubordination be damned. But he just says, “The _Yorktown_ is yours, Captain Kirk.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” she replies, granting him a smile.

[[Hellhound on My Trail](http://www.robertjohnsonbluesfoundation.org/lyrics.html), Robert Johnson (performed by Rory Block)]

 

+||+||+

 

Back in the shipyard’s guest quarters, Chris doesn’t sleep.

Blue like George’s, those eyes, and sharp like Winona’s—but without George’s gentleness, George the diplomat, George who could have turned those kids into best friends given five minutes and a few shots. But George isn’t here, and Chris is. That’s never seemed entirely fair.

Winona’s farmhouse isn’t far, but she’s home in the stars, and they don’t exactly chat anyway. He wishes he could talk to One, but she’s patrolling the Neutral Zone, well beyond reach.

The next morning, it doesn’t look like Jim slept any more than Chris did.

[[Demon John](http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/buckley_jeff/3996730/lyric.jhtml), Jeff Buckley]

 

+||+||+

 

Jim stumbles out of the bathroom, the girl behind him. It’s not like he’s zipping his pants, but it’s obvious what they were doing. And so, of course, there’s Bones on the corner stool, looking unimpressed. “Come on, Jimmy. We’re going home.”

“But it’s—”

“Yup. Let’s go.”

Bones makes him eat something and drink water. Jim protests this injustice, but somehow he eats and drinks. Bones installs them on the couch with _Star Wars_, and Jim doesn’t mean to fall asleep, but he wakes up under a blanket with his head on a pillow.

It isn't his birthday anymore.

[[Sweet Melissa](http://www.allmanbrothersband.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Lyrics&file=index&req=showcontent&id=64), Allman Brothers Band]

 

+||+||+

 

“This sounds medieval or something,” Jim says. They’re sprawled on the floor of her room, a beer in her hand, a beer in his, music on the player to dull the silence of the academy’s halls.

Uhura shakes her head. “Renaissance Italy. It’s a madrigal.”

“You know what they’re saying?”

“Yeah, I took a little Italian.”

“Why?” Jim asks. It’s not like you need it in Starfleet.

“I wanted to read Petrarch.”

Of course she did, Jim thinks.

She pauses. _“…more wild and more fleeting, since that to speak I offend you, I shall die in silence.”_

Jim gets that.

 

[[Cruda Amarilli](http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Cruda_Amarilli_\(Luca_Marenzio\)), Luca Marenzio]

 

+||+||+

 

They are readying themselves for the dinner. T’Kesa selects a necklace, and Sarek moves, by habit, to stand behind her and fasten it.

As he did for Amanda.

His loss of control is shameful: He drops the fine metalwork and retreats as if burned. T’Kesa turns, face betraying bewilderment; then her expression evens, and she retrieves the necklace from the floor.

“It is logical that you should be reminded of her.”

“Eight years have passed.”

“But only a month since you have lived again with a female.”

T’Kesa secures the pendant around her neck, then steps closer to Sarek. They touch fingers, and then, because marriage to a human caused him to desire illogical things, Sarek closes his arms around her.

“I once witnessed a similar expression between T’Niri and her husband,” T’Kesa muses. “I thought it overemotional then.” She catches Sarek’s hands before he can disengage. “But I find that it is pleasant when private.”

Sarek permits himself to stroke her hair. T’Kesa does not protest. “I hope your necklace was not damaged,” he says.

“No. It is well made.”

It is her own piece.

“We will be late,” remarks T’Kesa, presently.

“Yes,” Sarek answers, and does not move.

 

[[I'll Be Seeing You](http://www.ladyday.net/song/song109.html), Billie Holiday]

 

+||+||+

 

The morning light is as gentle on her skin now as it was two decades and uncountable galaxies ago. Chris traces his fingers slowly up and down her spine, where the skin is looser than it once was, folding where she probably would prefer it not, but he’d like to kiss every sign of the years they’ve survived to be able to wake up like this again.

Sleepily, Number One turns her head, and he’s known her long enough to read her smile in her eyes. “Do we need to be up yet?”

“No,” he says, and gathers her close.

["The First Time (Reprise)," The Million Dollar Hotel Band]

 

+||+||+

 

The house is a mess. The pane of frosted glass cracked when Spock slammed the door, and the three of them didn’t exactly navigate around furniture in their rugby tackle to the bedroom. Now all is quiet, just their breathing. There’s a green spot on the sheet from when Jim, desperate fingers furrowing Spock’s back, bit Spock’s shoulder as he came.

The fever past, Spock sleeps. Jim pulls Nyota into his arms. “Did you…” he murmurs, and she shakes her head.

He flips them over and grins up from approximately her navel. “Let’s fix that,” he suggests, and moves lower.

[[Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)](http://new.music.yahoo.com/concrete-blonde/tracks/bloodletting-the-vampire-song--1561859), Concrete Blonde]

 

+||+||+

 

Scotty comes out of the shower to find Gaila on the bed, reading a PADD. She’s entirely naked except for tartan knee socks, which, Scotty realizes, are his.

“Baby, this guy’s got some crazy theories about warp programming,” she says without looking up. “Want me to save the article?”

Scotty is sure that he must have been a defender of the faith in a past life.

“Please, lass. Might I say, those are interesting underthings.”

She lowers the PADD and smiles. “My feet got cold.”

“But what about the rest of ye?”

Her smile turns toothy. “Isn’t that your job?”

[[Knee Socks](http://lyrics.wikia.com/April_March:Knee_Socks), April March]

 

+||+||+

 

They step outside, and Rian immediately hugs herself, rubbing her arms. “Christ, it’s freezing out here!”

“Want to get a sweater?” McCoy asks.

She looks at him like he’s an idiot. “I can’t wear a sweater with this dress.” It’s dark red, with only the barest technicalities of straps, and it’s a succinct demonstration of how very, very lucky Leonard McCoy is. It doesn’t look like any wedding dress he’s ever seen, but he’s not inclined to complain.

The chapel’s only a few blocks from her apartment, but she’s got goosebumps before they reach the corner. “Oh, for God’s sake,” McCoy says, and takes off his suit jacket.

“That’s better,” she admits, and he shakes his head.

“April in San Francisco. Far be it from me to understand the ways of women.” She swats him on the ass, and he raises an eyebrow. “Thought we were saving that for the honeymoon, darlin’,” he drawls, and she laughs.

The temperature in the chapel isn’t much better. And so Rian Forestal says “I do” for the second time in her life, wearing a red dress and a man’s jacket, holding Leonard McCoy’s hand, and so happy she thinks her heart might burst.

[[Seasons Change](http://www.alwaysontherun.net/susiesuh.htm#s5), Susie Suh]


End file.
